WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The following statement can be attributed to Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Resources and Energy and Commerce Committees, who has opposed the drilling bill and has fought to hold oil companies accountable to taxpayers by making sure they pay their royalties for drilling on federal lands:

“The Republican Leadership’s decision to pull the controversial Senate offshore drilling bill from today’s schedule only further underscores how little support there remains for the Republican Party’s bankrupt energy policy. In November, Americans voted for a new direction on energy policy, not the same tired Republican policies of drill, drill, drill.  This bill would have gamed the system by hiding the massive giveaway of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal revenue to four Gulf States. The revenue from drilling on public lands offshore belongs to all Americans and is needed to pay for Social Security benefits for older Americans, Medicare, funding our troops in Iraq, and Homeland Security. To create a massive, never-ending entitlement program that diverts money from the many to the four is just plain wrong."